Last night I was up until 11pm working on this piece. But painting to the tune of a temper tantrum isn't conducive to great paint slinging...my three year old, who was supposed to be upstairs with daddy missed me and kept creeping downstairs to my studio. He was pulling things out of my storage closets to get my attention then just decided to lay on the floor and cry until I gave up and took him upstairs for bed. Such is life. The great part is that I got much done before his antics began...not to mention a very grateful full body hug from my little man before putting him to bed.
The shed in the background was driving me nuts so I painted over it and am very pleased with the result. Not sure what happened there but the composition is exceedingly superior to the previous one that included the shed. I'll post photos below so you can see just how much taking clutter out of a painting helps. I do this with my own life too. I cannot stand clutter and cannot think until all clutter is removed. This is a problem however at our home as I have five piggies to pick up after and often spend precious work time getting the house straight because it's driving me nuts otherwise.
I have four more hours to work on this piece today and really feel like that will suffice. The piece is due by midnight tonight and I may just warm the palette up a little today a bit and tweak my farmhouse...which incidentally I spent an hour on last night and it's still not right. I am very proud of the trees though. Trees are something I really want to get better at and I feel like this exercise has really taken my tree making skills up a notch. Anyhow, here are photos from last night's work. Stay tuned for a finished piece later today (tonight?).
Irritating shed in background.
Very pleased with tree and shadows.
"Great Plains Bones" at 12 hour mark.